<p>I remember meeting a Dartmouth grad who was working in a non-profit I interned for a while back, and it struck me as rather odd that she would've chosen a non-profit out in TX to work for considering the range of opportunities I thought an Ivy could produce. </p>
<p>Is most of the hype about acquiring a high paying job with an Ivy degree centered around banking or consulting? Or perhaps, the hard sciences? </p>
<p>Has anyone ever met any Harvard grads who were working in places where majority local state school grads were working? </p>
<p>I am not naive to think that a Harvard degree is a ticket to riches but has anyone in here ever run into an Ivy grad and wondered, "what are they doing here"?</p>
<p>well i intern at a law firm and the grads range from princeton/harvard/brown to the rutgers, hostra, long island univeristy …and they are all attorneys doing the same work…an ivy education is not a ticket to anything.
many of the CEOs of major companies attended non-ivy schools or state schools.
even powerful women like hillary clinton, condoleeza rice, madeleine albright did not attend an ivy league undergrad.
the ivy league is overrated.</p>
<p>sry got sim lafing gaz up in hur <em>ahem</em></p>
<p>Actually, Harvard is #1 for Most Unsuccessful Graduates on the 2011 USNWR rankings. Yes, working at a non-profit is the epitome of failure. Indeed, everybody goes to an Ivy League school to get rich.</p>
<p>I’m completely with you, texas. Steve Jobs and William Gates III made it bigger than anybody I know, and they’re college dropouts. The Ivy League is just so overrated. Education my butt! I mean, Bush went to an Ivy! Doesn’t that mean Yale is the worst school on the planet? Of course it does! Down with the Ivy League! Who’s with me?! </p>
<p>Down with the Ivy League!
Down with the Ivy League!</p>
<p>Down with Affirmative Action, too, while we’re at it! I want the Ivies to look just like UCLA! Black/latino people suck! I WANT TO BE SURROUNDED BY ASIANS WHO ARE…well…BETTER! More WORTHY! Yeah!</p>
<p>DiD u guise kn0 a HARVARD STUDENT published an article on USNWR saying how his OWN SCHOOL sucked?!? and that he learned more in high school??? HARVARD SUCKS HARVARD SUCKS!!!1111111 I’tS ALL SHOW EVERYONE IS DELUDED INTO THINKING HARVARD IS A GOOD SCHOOL. </p>
<p>DOWN WITH HARVARD!!!111
DOWN WITH HARVARD!!11111111</p>
<p>Down with financial aid! I can pay for my own college education! Who does Harvard’s Dean of Financial Aid think he is, trying to PAY for his students? Amurrricans WORK for what they want! It’s the Amurrrican way! What a patronizing and condescending elitist unAmerican jerk! He must be a commie </p>
<p>WHILEE WE’RE AT IT…KAGAN IS OBVIOUSLY UNFIT FOR THE SUPREME COURT BECAUSE SHE SPENT TOO MUCH OF HER LIFE IN ELITIST CIRCLES!!! she should’ve come from a farm, where she would’ve learned AMURRICAN VALUES. HARVARD LAW SCHOOL!!! PISH POSH PISH POSH</p>
<p>The Ivy League a bastion of elitism and false promises…I GOT INTO AN IVY AND I STILL CAN’T GET LAID.</p>
<p>Hillary Clinton went to Wellesley, which in her day was the equivalent to Ivy League. The Ivy League was originally all-male, and the Seven Sisters of which Wellesley is one was the female-equivalent. The Seven Sisters are not so competitive now because the Ivies are all coed & all-female colleges are not so popular now but in her day it was “Ivy”. Don’t know about Madeline or Condoleeza.</p>
<p>You don’t have to convince me of that. I bet you don’t. </p>
<p>By the way you write, you probably don’t handle rejection well.</p>
<p>Anyways, back on topic. </p>
<p>My original post wasn’t meant to be anti-Harvard or anti-Ivy, but against this illusion that going to Harvard means you’ve automatically struck gold. </p>
<p>I know lots of Harvard and Yale graduates who work for nonprofits and/or government and have never made anything like a lot of money. Including the one I am married to (although she earns a decent salary now).</p>
<p>The worst off are the ones who are ministers or rabbis. Oh the shame! And yet . . . not all of them work for hedge funds, investment banks, or Big Pharma. Hard to understand how that could be!</p>
<p>When I think of the people I hung out with a lot at Yale, there has been an amazing disparity in financial outcomes. One of our “crew” went on to found a very successful hedge fund and was worth billions by 35; one year, in fact, the WSJ reported he had the highest w-2 in the US. Another of our crew meandered around a bunch of obscure magazine jobs and essentially had a mini breakdown by 35. He lives with his elderly father now and occasionally teaches low level community college writing courses. I don’t think he’s ever made more than $15K a year. Despite the glittery degree, outcomes are all over the board.</p>
<p>^^Why do you ask that question? What’s your angle? Is this an " is it worth it?" kind of thing? I sincerely doubt if it is. We are going to send our kid to an Ivy and we are paying for all of it – no FA – and we can afford it. Amazingly, in “spite” of the fact that neither of us went to an Ivy or any other CC popular school we’ve been very fortunate to do well in our work (luck, hard work, good decisions, intelligence maybe, etc.). Our kid has gotten this opportunity thru similar means and we are inclined to let her have it, despite NMS free rides and athletic partial scholarships. We have no illusions that this is a ticket to fame, fortune and happiness. It’s just another great school. Parents do what they can for their kids within reason. There are a lot of folks who feel the same way. It’s the parents and students on this forum who think that an Ivy league education or a top 10 LAC or HYMPS or whatever is the answer to all of life’s problems who are deluded. If it’s affordable because you have the money to pay or because you’re getting good FA – great. If it’s not affordable, if it’s painful, if it’s a big stretch then I think the parents and the students need a dose of reality. I have no doubt she’ll be going to a great school, but I think it’s the qualities that gets the kids admission to theses schools much more than the schools themselves that will likely be their path to success, however you define it. And I know that there are hundreds of great schools out there, no matter how USNWR ranks them. Our lone hope for her is that she makes the most of the opportunity, whatever that means – and that isn’t necessarily getting a 3.6 or better so she can go to Harvard law or yale med or where ever – and finds happiness in some way.</p>
<p>I don’t get this thread at all. Why do you think people work for non-profits? Or do scientific research? Or become a painter or a playwright? In general, people turn down the “riches” that come with a prestigious degree because the center of their life is not wealth, and their given profession is not one in which great wealth is typical. It’s called not selling out. </p>
<p>When advising his postdoc on whether to choose industry or academia, the head of the MIT chemistry department told the postdoc that being a professor was “the last noble profession left.”</p>
<p>I would think a Harvard degree would likely get you a second look by employers. (Unless the applicant pool holds degrees from similar schools…)</p>
<p>However, it’s not a ticket to wealth or success, because nothing in this world is besides yourself as a person. If you hold a degree from Harvard but want to be a homemaker, you can. Personally, I hope to work in a certain job where my income will probably cap out at about 60k even with the magical Harvard diploma, simply because I am passionate about the work. So, I guess what I’m saying is, if you have an Ivy League education, the work ethic, ambition, drive for monetary gain, and a little luck, you can go far if you want to. But the same applies to someone who holds a degree from BigStateU. </p>
<p>In short, I would assume that the Harvard degree would make someone look twice, but it’s what you want and what you do with your education that ultimately will determine if you are “wealthy” in a monetary sense. </p>
<p>Also, please consider that the person working for the NPO was doing so because she genuinely wanted to, not because she couldn’t get a “high-paying” job.</p>
<p>…Ivy League students aren’t phased by the recession? If someone is at a low paying job it’s only because they wanted to be there? That’s taking the “personal initiative” mantra a little too far.</p>
<p>No. So basically what we’re saying is… that some Harvard grads choose low paying jobs in order to do what they want to do, and some “choose” those jobs because they couldn’t get a high paying job. Some Harvard grads want to be grade school teachers and some Harvard grads want to work in a bakery and some Harvard grads can’t get the job at Goldman Sachs that they wanted. Why is this a mystery?</p>